GMA host Amy Robach discovers breast cancer on TV

Amy Robach really didn’t want the assignment she was given by her producers, but it turned out that the story affected her entire life. She had breast cancer.

One Good Morning America correspondent is thanking her producers today for assigning a story that would turn out to save her life. Amy Robach was asked to participate in an on-air mammogram screening as a part of the morning show’s October Pink Initiative to get female viewers to make their breast health a priority.

On Monday’s show, Robach talked about her initial hesitancy to accept the assignment.

She told Roberts, “I was a little reluctant at first. I’m 40, I’m the age and I’ve been putting it off.”

After she did the on-air mammogram, the correspondent was asked to come in for additional tests. Once a final diagnosis was given, the wife of former Melrose Place star Andrew Shue was told she had breast cancer.

With no family history of the disease, the 40-year-old reporter was shocked.

“It’s still hard for me to say the words out loud. I have breast cancer,” Robach shared.

Her husband joined her on the show for her public announcement. She has two daughters from her previous marriage and he has three sons from his prior marriage. Robach admitted it wasn’t easy telling her family.

“Telling my children was the toughest part,” she said. “But that’s when you get strong, because you have to be strong for other people.”

As a result of her diagnosis, Robach has weighed her options and is having a bilateral mastectomy. At this point, she does not know what stage her cancer is in nor does she know if the cancer has spread.

Robach summed up her feeling quite profoundly. “I’m so grateful that I got the mammogram that day. Robin’s words still echo inside of me: ‘If I got the mammogram on-air and saved one life then it’s all worth it,’ she had said. It never occurred to me that that life would be mine.”